Pee-Wee Herman is making his long, long awaited return to movies in the upcoming Pee-Wee’s Big Holiday, which is coming straight to Netflix sometime next year. The Pee Wee movie has ben a long time coming, ever since Judd Apatow announced he was producing a new film several years back. What little we know about the plot of the new movie — which is being directed by Broad City’s John Lee — describes Pee-Wee taking his first-ever holiday after being inspired by a mysterious stranger, leading to “an epic story of friendship and destiny.” And now we know who that best friend is: former True Blood actor and current Magic Mike XXL star Joe Manganiello.

The actor recently confirmed to Collider details about his character that were previously unknown (as Pee Wee stated on his blog earlier this year, we already knew Manganiello was in the film). So: not only is he starring in Pee Wee’s comeback movie, he has a pretty big role as Pee Wee’s best friend.

About his role as Pee Wee’s new BFF, Maganiello said, “What an honor to star opposite Pee-wee, and be in scenes opposite Pee-Wee. And this wasn’t a stunt cast, mind you. This isn’t like I show up for a day, kind of get in-get out. It’s a major role, I play Pee-Wee’s best friend. It’s a lot of responsibility.”

From the sound of it, it looks like this movie is more like the classic Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, and less Big Top Pee-Wee — which is a good thing. Maganiello added, “it’s this big, kind of wild ride; this trip, this journey that Pee-wee goes on much like Big Adventure was. It reminds you of all of those reasons why we were obsessed with Big Adventure growing up, and obsessed with Pee-wee’s Playhouse. All of that is in there, but it’s a completely new and kind of updated version with a couple of winks back to other storylines.”

There’s no release date for the new movie quite yet, but it’s expected sometime in 2016.

HT: Collider